Outer Banks Finally Confirmed JJ's Real Name In The Most Subtle Way

Ever since Outer Banks began, fans have been trying to solve one central mystery: What is JJ Maybank’s real first name? JJ has to stand for something, right? Well, it appears that burning question has finally been answered, it just took four seasons and a very, very subtle bit of text to confirm.

Spoiler alert: This post discusses a major twist at the end of Outer Banks Season 4, Part 1. As the latest season dropped a bombshell about JJ’s secret family, it also revealed his given name... although only eagle-eyed fans caught it. At the end of the first half of Season 4, JJ’s father Luke revealed he’s not actually JJ’s father. The spontaneous Pogue’s mother was actually Larissa Genrette, a wealthy woman who mysteriously died when JJ was an infant. Luke’s implication is that Chandler Groff, Larissa’s widower, is JJ’s real dad.

As if that wasn’t enough of a shock, the new genealogy also confirmed JJ’s real first name. Earlier in the season (midway through Episode 3, to be exact), Deputy Shoupe was reading an old newspaper clipping about Larissa’s death. As a fan pointed out on Reddit, the article reveals that Larissa’s son was named Jackson.

So there you have it: JJ Maybank’s actual name is Jackson Groff. Yeah, it doesn’t exactly have the same flair to it.

While his middle name is still an unknown, this revelation finally provided closure to years of fan theories about what JJ could stand for. The predominant guess was that his first name could be John, and that the Pogues decided to call him JJ to differentiate him from John B. There have also been some wilder theories, like that his name is Jesse James as a nod to his outlaw persona, or that it’s a combination of Josh and Jonas as a reference to co-creators Josh and Jonas Pate.

There are still a lot of mysteries left to be solved in the Outer Banks universe, but at least now fans can put this one to bed.